The fourth-year medical student at the UC College of Medicine learned Friday afternoon, March 17, 2017, that he will spend the next three years of his residency training in family medicine at Indiana University in Indianapolis. As a co-class president, Bittinger presided over Match Day activities at UC.

"Itís been excitement from start to finish,Ē says Bittinger of Match Day. "This class has worked so hard for the past four years and they have done so well academically, emotionally and on every level. Itís just so exciting and relieving to see everybody so happy to reach the end of this crazy journey to become doctors. There is always surprises here and there, but the fact is we are all going to be doctors at the end of the day and I donít think anybody can be upset by that.Ē

Fourth-year medical students at the UC College of Medicine and at medical schools around the country learned today where they'll spend the next several years in residency training. It was all part of Match Day, an annual event managed by the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), which pairs the preference of medical student with those of residency programs to create optimal matches.

Results from UC indicate that:

Of the 159 matched students, 40 students will do either their primary or preliminary residency in Greater Cincinnati.

Of those, 25 will train at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and 5 will complete pediatric residency at Cincinnati Childrenís Hospital Medical Center. The rest matched at Jewish, Christ, Bethesda and Good Sam hospitals.

The most popular primary residencies for UC students were pediatrics and internal medicine followed by anesthesiology and family medicine.

Some specialties require students to complete preliminary residencies, one year of training prior to entering an advanced position in an area of specialty.

"Match day is the culmination of everything we have worked so hard for all four years,Ē says Marcus Germany, a fourth-year medical student, who has matched in internal medicine pediatrics and will spend his residency at Case Western/Metro Health in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Itís my dream and I am going home,Ē exclaimed an excited Germany. "I came here to study medicine, but itís time to go home.Ē